


A Quiet Place

by sinemoras09



Series: Witness Universe [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:36:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 13,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinemoras09/pseuds/sinemoras09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Witness. Kimimaro and Anko navigate a new relationship. Collection of drabbles. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Witness revisited

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following is a collection of oneshots and drabbles I wrote taking place after the events in the fic, Witness (Kimimaro/Anko). Mostly done for my own amusement, I updated the collection sporadically over the course of several months and wrote things out of order. Here I tried to re-order things to follow a sort of chronology, although things like tenses and such are kind of mixed up. Needless to say I plan to keep adding to this as ideas come to me, so technically it's complete-but-ongoing, if that makes any sense. 
> 
> This first drabble was the original ending to Witness. It doesn't really fit anywhere else, but I liked it so much I thought I'd post it here for posterity's sake :) Anyway...long author's note is long. tl;dr, Kimimaro/Anko is my crack!ship OTP and I wrote this since no one else ships them, lol :)  
> __________________________

_Slowly, Kimimaro drags himself to where Anko is lying. Rainwater mixes with the blood on the ground._

_Anko is still unconscious. With difficulty, Kimimaro reaches out and touches her hand. "Anko," Kimimaro says. His chest heaves and he collapses beside her, his cheek pressed against her face. Moments pass, and she comes to consciousness slowly, wincing and clutching her side. She turns, and her eyes widen when she sees Kimimaro lying beside her._

_"Oi," Anko says. She pushes herself upright, then shakes Kimimaro's shoulder. "Oi!"_

_Kimimaro coughs. Flecks of blood come out of his mouth. "Anko-san," Kimimaro says. "You are awake."_

_"Teme. What did you do?" Anko says. "You used the seal, didn't you?"_

_Kimimaro nods slowly. "Yes."_

_Anko's face is pale. "Why?" Anko says. "It could have killed you! Why would you do that?"_

_"Because you needed me," Kimimaro says. Slowly he closes his eyes._

_  
_

_*****_

_There is a reason why people are born. A mission they have to accomplish. He glances back at Anko, who sleeps curled up beside him. Yes, he thinks. There is a mission for me as well._

_He is still alive._

_Quietly, he sits besides Anko and watches the rise and fall of her breath, silently studying the way she breathes. Anko. So long as Orochimaru is alive, he will continue to torment her. Hurt her. Treat her like so much trash. He cannot let that happen. Not while he is still alive._

_Morning comes, and above him the sky lightens, the dark of the night giving way to a watery gray. Gently, Kimimaro leans forward and brushes back her hair, then kisses the corners of her eyes. Anko stirs and Kimimaro hitches her close, pressing her against his chest, then waiting for the sun to rise._


	2. Witness revisited

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collection of random drabbles to the Witness universe, which I've attempted to organize chronologically. This was actually written over the course of several months and updated sporadically, so the tenses between different chapters differ between present and past-tense. *nods*

The field he crested opened into a clearing, and for the first time Kimimaro could see the edges of the training grounds. Children were throwing shuriken while the adults who supervised had started to spar.

No one had seen him. He was thankful for this, because the month on foot toward Konoha was unforgiving: he had already been injured when he escaped from Orochimaru.

Escaped, but in truth let go, for the old man thought it funny somehow, letting his worthless vessel fend for himself in the middle of the woods.

Kimimaro crouched behind the brush, suppressing a tight cough and keeping his eyes fixed on the training grounds. Konoha had been ridiculously easy to penetrate, even for someone in his condition, and once he found Anko he would tell her as much.

"Go home!" Anko said. Kimimaro's eyes widened.

Anko was there. For once dumb luck was on his side. She was shouting at a group of children. She would be, Kimimaro thought, and he smiled at the memory of Anko, bellowing like a young bull in the middle of the forest.

The genin team dispersed, but to Kimimaro's surprise Anko fell to her knees, searching the ground.

No one was there, but for the first time, Kimimaro hesitated. Not once during the month-long journey did he wonder if he was doing the right thing; if he would be welcome, or if she too would turn him out like so much trash. He had pinned his hopes and dreams on something that neither one of them had openly named.

He started to turn, when his foot knocked into what he thought was a stone.

He knelt, and was surprised to find it wasn't a stone but a piece of bone; one of his, in fact. He could recognize it anywhere.

Kimimaro looked up. The sun was setting, and streaks of sunlight backlit the grass, and Kimimaro suddenly understood that this bone fragment was what Anko had been looking for.

A feeling, something he couldn't really describe, settled painfully on his chest as he stood up, moving quietly in the grass to where Anko was searching. If he were an assassin, he could kill her with ease. She was on her hands and knees, too frantic to realize he was standing behind her, when she backed up and knocked into his leg.

"What-" Anko turned, and Kimimaro could see the thousand emotions flashing on Anko's face.

Then she threw her arms around him, the force of her weight making him stagger backwards. Kimimaro smiled and pressed a hand to her head while Anko buried her face against his shoulder and started to cry.


	3. Futon

"Tomorrow we have to tell Tsunade-sama you're here," Anko says. She's standing on tip-toe in front of her closet, struggling to pull the extra futon rolled up at the topmost shelf. "You're an s-class nin; I don't want to get my ass kicked for harboring a criminal."

"Fine," Kimimaro says. Anko struggles, just barely keeping up her balance as she tugs on the futon, so Kimimaro steps in and pulls it down for her.

"Show off," Anko says. She motions for Kimimaro to follow her. "This is the kitchen; the living room is over here. You can probably unroll the mat here, for now. Oh, and over there's my bedroom."

Kimimaro nods. "I will be sure not to go in there," Kimimaro says. Anko glares.

"Oi. I never said that," Anko says. She kicks open the mat.

 

****

 

Dinner is awkward. Kimimaro watches Anko play nervously with her chopsticks; her hands are in constant motion, at turns tapping the chopsticks against the bowl, then flipping them over and stirring the rice. Kimimaro sets down his chopsticks, then rises.

"Where are you going?" Anko says.

"I apologize. I realize my return was sudden; I do not wish to trouble you further," Kimimaro says. He turns swiftly and heads toward the door.

"O-oi! Wait a minute!" Anko follows him into the living room. "You left Orochimaru, didn't you?"

"Yes." Kimimaro looks at her, quietly. "However I do not wish to overstay my welcome. I only wished to see how you were; now that I know you're fine, I shall take my leave."

He manages a stiff bow before Anko catches his hand.

"I don't want you to go," Anko says. Hesitantly, she steps closer to him, until she's standing only a finger's breadth away. Kimimaro is suddenly all too aware of her small body close to his, and the heat radiating off her skin.

Anko blushes, then glares. "So are you going to kiss me or what?" Anko says.

"What?"

Anko grunts, then grabs the back of Kimimaro's head, forcing him down to her height. She stands on tip-toe and plants a matter-of-fact kiss against his closed lips.

Kimimaro is too stunned to react, and Anko looks flushed and slightly embarrassed. "Don't tell me you're too stupid to know when a girl likes you," Anko says.

"I-" Kimimaro blinks again.

"You like me, right?" Anko says. Typical of the woman; throwing herself recklessly without regard for her own personal safety. She stands, angry and defiant, and crosses her arms. "Look, if you don't, that's fine; I'll go lick my wounds somewhere else. Just not before I beat the shit out of you for leading me on."

"I do not understand," Kimimaro says.

"The touching. The way you stared at me. Oh, and the boo-hoo sob story of being lonely and having everybody hate you. That," Anko says. And then, a little more uncertainly, "You do like me, right?" Her voice sounds so small.

Kimimaro manages to get a hold of himself. Gently he cups her shoulders, then leans in and kisses her on the temple. "That is a ridiculous question," Kimimaro says, quietly. "I came here to be with you."

Anko is one large blush; artlessly, she grabs him around the waist and presses her body flush against his. "Well what the hell are we waiting for?" Anko says.

(Later, after they've made love and they're tangled together in the bedsheets, all loose limbs and flushed damp skin, Anko realizes something. "Oi," Anko says. "Tomorrow we have to tell Tsunade-sama you're here. I don't want to get my ass kicked for sleeping with a missing-nin.")


	4. Reunion

In the bedroom, he isn't sure what she's doing - years of isolation have done nothing to prepare him for this - but when she steps forward, leaning on her tiptoes and nuzzling the space under his jaw, somehow he understands. Wordlessly, he lets her hands palm the broad edge of his shoulders, peeling back the fabric of his shirt. Before he knows it, she's kissing him, tracing the line of his collarbone with her lips and dropping small kisses on the mark on his chest.

Kimimaro sighs, and Anko flows upward again, kissing the side of his jaw. "You can move too, you know," Anko says.

"...move?"

Anko smiles into his neck. "Think about it," Anko says, and she drops a small kiss on his shoulder.

There is a moment - a single, terrifying moment - when neither one of them moves. Anko takes the time to shrug out of her jacket, pull off her shirt without so much as a preamble. There is an ease of movement when she does this, and Kimimaro is surprised at how comfortable she is in her own skin. "You've done this before," Kimimaro says, a little awestruck, and Anko laughs and rolls her eyes.

"Come on," Anko says, and she tugs him to the bed. And then, a little wickedly, "I'll be gentle."

In the dark, he can feel her moving against his hand. Her skin is soft and surprisingly warm, and he can feel her breath fanning against his skin. She presses her lips against the line of his collarbone, follows it down to his sternum and the side of his chest. Her movement is slow and lingering, and he feels expert hands ghosting the waist of his pants.

There's a new line of skin exposed, and Anko rubs her mouth on the patch of skin. His stomach tightens, and when she kisses him just below his navel his breath hitches, despite himself.

Anko rises again, leaning over him. "Do you want to kiss me?" she asks. Kimimaro nods, and wordlessly rolls her onto her back. Her breasts are full and soft, and hesitantly, he leans and gently kisses her just below her collarbone.

Anko sighs, then takes her hand and cups her breast. Kimimaro watches, transfixed, as she slowly tweaks her nipple with her fingers. "You can use your mouth on them," Anko says. Her eyes slide upwards, meeting his.

Dutifully, he closes his mouth around her nipple, and Anko gasps, arching her back. He swipes his tongue around her areola, and with his hand rolls her other nipple under his thumb. Suddenly he has a purpose, and knowing this makes him feel less awkward.

"Tell me what to do," he says. Anko nods, then takes his hand, guiding it between her legs. "Like this?" he asks, and he presses his fingers into her clitoris. Anko squirms.

"Y-yes." Her voice is choked. Pleased, Kimimaro moves lower, moving her leg to the side. "Do you want me to use my mouth on there, too?"

"If...if you want."

"I want to be useful," he says, and dips low and gives an experimental lick. Anko gasps, and when he presses closer her voice comes in a low whine.

He has no problem reading her body. Like countering an enemy in battle, he is able to make slight but precise adjustments to her reactions. The way her breath hitches, how her hands grip the sheets. She's a coil ready to spring, and when he presses just the right amount of pressure, she finally comes, thrashing against him and her hands fisting into his hair.

The air shifts, and suddenly Anko is pulling him up by the arms and kissing him, crushing her body against his. Insistent hands tug desperately at his belt, and Kimimaro gasps when he feels her grip his length. "Anko-"

"Please," Anko says. She pulls at him again, guides him to her entrance. He enters her slowly, just the head at first, shaking at the feel of her tight channel stretching around him; the sensation is too much, and with one harsh thrust he's inside her, unable to control himself.

He feels her grip his back as he buries his face into her shoulder, thrusting hard. Anko moans softly, fingers digging into his skin. She feels good. Blindly, he gropes for her hand, her breast, kisses her cheek and neck and the corners of her eyes. The mouths collide, and his breath leaves him in a harsh rush as she kisses him back.

When he comes, he's nearly breathless, collapsing on her and dizzily hearing her jagged breath against his ear. It's enough to send her over the edge, and he feels the contractions of her orgasm around him.

He finally manages to untangle himself, and Anko rolls on her side and nuzzles against his shoulder.

"That wasn't so bad, right?" she says.

And he can't find the words to answer.


	5. Blinds

Outside, the glow of orange streetlights worked their way through the slats in the blinds, making zebra stripes of light and shadow across the bed. They were lying together on the mattress, Anko curled against Kimimaro's back and her chin pressed against the space between his neck and shoulder. "What happened?" Anko asked.

Shadows crossed Kimimaro's face, and it was as if he was looking at something far away. "He had no use for me," Kimimaro said. His voice was low and Anko could feel the tension in his muscles increase; quietly she draped her arm across his chest, pulling him closer to her.

"And you left?" Anko said. "Just like that?"

"They probably think I'm dead," Kimimaro said. "In any case, they couldn't be bothered to kill me."

Anko's fingers protectively dug into the muscles of his bicep; she pressed her face against his back. "I'm glad," Anko said. She nuzzled her cheek against his back, then kissed the space between his shoulderblades. She could feel his muscles loosen beneath her palm.

"I want to be useful to you." Kimimaro's voice was soft. "I don't know how much I can do-"

"I don't care," Anko said. "Just lie here a minute. Okay?"

She pressed her face against his back again, hugging him and closing her eyes.


	6. A Quiet Place

His mark is exposed, and Anko dips forward, kissing the mark with her lips. She kisses each point, each curved line, slowly and carefully as if she were picking out the delicate seams of something being torn asunder.

Kimimaro's eyes are closed, but his mouth is softly open; Anko is pleased to see his mouth a small pleasured 'o' as she runs her fingers through the tangles of his hair. Slowly, she bends forward, dropping a small kiss on the side of his jaw, the slope of his shoulder. She nuzzles the side of his face and kisses the corners of his eyes.

Kimimaro's lips part, and softly Anko slides her tongue inside. She feels his breath hitch as her arms press around his shoulders. Her breasts are crushed up against his chest, and their hips lock together; she gasps a little whens he feels his hardness scrape against her clitoris, pressing up against her through the fabric of her clothes. 

Gently, she guides him toward her bed, leaning him backwards so that she's lying on top of him, kissing him and grazing his skin with her lips. She sighs a little as she feels his hands rest flat against her hips, pressing her against him. The kiss deepens; Anko rocks her hips, grinding her clitoris against Kimimaro's erection. It feels good, _he_ feels good, and almost desperately she grinds against him, gathering his shoulders and hugging him, close. 

She kisses his neck, buries her nose into his skin, which is warm and pale beneath her hands. Slowly she pushes up his hakama, baring his shoulders and chest; dipping low, she drops small kisses down his abdomen, the crest of his hip, until finally she tugs down the last vestiges of his clothes and takes his erection into her hand.

Kimimaro groans. Anko's eyes slide upwards, pleased to see his head fall back and his jaw fall slack. Gently, she takes him into her mouth, sucking deeply. Her tongue swirls the underside of his glans, and she feels Kimimaro press a trembling hand against the crown of her head. Anko's eyelids flutter, and she feels Kimimaro gently guiding her head. She inhales and tries to take him deeper, reveling in the muted taste of salt, in the way his muscles tense and in the small, desperate sounds coming from Kimimaro's throat.

"Stop," Kimimaro says. His voice is strained. "Stop, stop..."

Anko rises, hands pressing against his chest. Kimimaro tugs at her shirt, kissing the space behind her ear. Her shirt falls without preamble, clothes slowly being peeled away. 

Kimimaro's eyes are like bruises when he leans her backwards onto the bed, calloused hands tracing small circles onto her breasts. It's his turn to kiss her now, kissing the side of her neck and then the line of her clavicle. He nuzzles the soft curve of her breast, then takes her nipple into his mouth.

Anko arches back, moaning softly. He suckles on her, and dizzily she feels his fingers gently slide into her entrance. She's wet and his fingers slip inside her easily. She can barely think, she's overwhelmed with sensation, and Kimimaro leisurely switches from one breast to the other, suckling her nipple and then just barely grazing the taut peak with his teeth.

Anko gasps, and Kimimaro smiles. He has done something useful, and Kimimaro looks pleased. Wordlessly, he lowers himself between her legs, and slowly, painstakingly, introduces his tongue into her slit. Anko lets out a low, pleading whine, and Kimimaro slides his tongue against her clitoris. He licks her in a devastating rhythm, slow and unhurried, suckling on her clitoris until Anko is shaking. 

Anko's hands flutter uselessly by her sides, until landing on Kimimaro's shoulders. Her fingers dig into his skin, and Kimimaro takes that as a cue to pull himself upright. Her eyes meet his, and she can't help but think how beautiful he is, how lost. Silently, she wraps her legs around his waist, urging him to move forward.

And he does; she feels him pressing the blunt end of his cock against her opening. Anko breathes and Kimimaro slides inside her easily, gasping a little at the sensation. 

And then he begins to thrust.

Anko pants against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his back and squeezing her eyes. He feels good; everything feels good. He's hitting that spot, that perfect spot where everything falls to the background and there's nothing but sex and sensation, the feel of Kimimaro deep inside her, his face pressed against her shoulder and his breath hot against her skin. 

She's like a string pulled taut and ready to snap; she clutches at his arms, spurring him on until everything rises and she bursts, the strength of her orgasm threatening to snap her into two. It's not long until Kimimaro comes as well, collapsing against her and pulsing deep inside her.

Outside, the moon is covered by a fine haze, making streaks of shadows on the floor. Kimimaro is asleep. Gently, Anko brushes back a strand of hair, looking out the window. Through the glass, she sees nothing but endless dark, the cloud-cover hiding the stars.

Absently, she trails her fingers across his cheek, and when she glances down again, she sees him start to smile.


	7. An Embarrassing Problem

.

Sometimes, when Kimimaro got too excited, his body would erupt into bones.

At first, Anko thought the whole thing was hilarious. "Eh, not the only hard thing on you, huh?" she said, and Kimimaro squirmed and blushed as she pressed against his lap. But then those bones would erupt at the most inopportune times; while he kissed her in the mornings; while he made love to her at night. "Goddamn it, Kimimaro, you cut my hand with your spine!"

"My apologies," Kimimaro said. His face was one huge blush.

The worst was when it happened mid-coitus, Anko's face flushed and buried into Kimimaro's shoulder as he thrust, gripping her hard and panting; at the moment of completion, bones would spring up from his shoulders, nearly impaling Anko in the process.

"You need to control yourself," Anko said. Kimimaro was hunched over the bed, shame-faced and letting the bones recede. "What if you kill me in the process?"

"Forgive me," Kimimaro said.

"Ugh," Anko said. "This is probably the reason why your bloodline limit is so fucking rare."

"I did not mean to hurt you."

"Uh huh." Anko draped her body over Kimimaro's shoulders, her bare breasts pressed against his back. "Maybe I should teach you a lesson," Anko said, and she let her fingertips trail across the line of his abdomen.

A shard of bone thrust sharply up from Kimimaro's chest. "Dammit!" Anko said.

"S-sorry!"

"You're going to kill me!"

"I am so ashamed."

It was Tsunade who came up with the solution. "Deplete his chakra," Tsunade said. "Make him good and tired first so that he can't make more bone. Except, you know. The one you want."

Anko's face reddened. "Oh!"

And so it was that Anko and Kimimaro took to midnight sparing; it was a strange kind of foreplay, but they were shinobi so they made it work.


	8. By Your Honor

Unfortunately, Kimimaro does not make friends among the Konoha nin.

"Yo! Kimimaro-kun! How are you?" Kakashi says.

Kimimaro glances back at him, then continues walking. Kakashi rubs his neck, awkwardly. "Ah, so I heard from Anko-san that you're doing well."

"Why must you insist on talking to me?" Kimimaro says.

Kakashi blinks. "Well. It's just--"

"I do not waste my time with trash."

A fine bead of sweat forms on Kakashi's brow. He forces himself to smile. "Heh. Well I suppose I should get going."

"Hmph," Kimimaro says.

 

****

 

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Anko says. Kimimaro looks up.

"You are home," Kimimaro says.

"Tch. Don't play sweet with me, everyone's talking about it," Anko says. She shrugs off her coat, tossing it on the couch. "You can't even be bothered to make small talk with Kakashi, and he was trying so hard to be nice to you."

"I do not see the point," Kimimaro says. "They are trash, none of whom are accepting of our relationship. I do not see why I must exchange pleasantries with them."

He moves quietly from the livingroom to the kitchen, and Anko watches, frowning. Of course. She should have known he would do something like this: push the others away before they have a chance to reject him. He probably isn't even aware he's doing it.

"You're an idiot," Anko says. Kimimaro frowns.

(Later, Gai makes the unfortunate remark that Anko must be "a real tigress in bed!" and it takes two Hyuuga nin and Gai's own flustered pupil Lee to hold Kimimaro back. Anko would be pissed, except that she is a fucking tigress in the sack and Kimimaro's attempts to protect her honor are nothing short of adorable.

She doesn't tell him this, though.)


	9. Makeup

It is the weirdest fucking thing, Anko decides, watching Kimimaro put on his makeup.

Well. It's not exactly makeup per se, they're ceremonial markings of his clan - but it's still fucking odd. Anko watches, perched at the side of the bed, as Kimimaro sits in front of the mirror. Dutifully he mixes a sort of charcoal paste and lines the rims of his eyes; then she watches as he takes a second mixture, this time a sort of red clay that he's diluted with water, and carefully swipes his lower lids with his fingers. He dips the pads of his index finger into the red and presses two perfect circles on his forehead, the maro-mayu of his clan.

The hair is next. Anko watches as Kimimaro carefully parts his hair to the side, plaiting them as carefully as a twelve year-old girl. He fastens the red clips at the end, and Anko decides watching him is boring as hell.

"Why do you have to do that?" Anko says. "You're going to bed. It's not as if you're going to repeat the process tomorrow morning."

"I must always bear the markings of my people, even if it is just for the night," Kimimaro says. Anko snorts.

"You look like a woman," Anko says. "Besides, this shit's gonna get all over the bed, can't you just wash your face like a normal person?" (Anko's routine, after all, consists of splashing cold water in her face and tying her hair up without brushing it. Bedtime is even worse.)

"You've never had a problem with it before," Kimimaro says.

"Yeah, but I just realized I don't know what the hell you look like without it," Anko says.

"This is a problem?" Kimimaro says.

"Yeah, because we're supposed to be fucking intimate, and you already walk around half-naked all the goddamn time, what's left for me to see?"

Kimimaro watches her for a long moment. Then he slowly begins to unfasten the plaits in his hair.

Anko gawks. Slowly, Kimimaro takes a wet cloth and wipes his face; she watches his hands as he wrings the cloth out over the basin, the colors bleeding into the water.

"There," Kimimaro says. "Are you satisfied?"

Anko's eyes widen. Kimimaro's hair falls in stringy clumps by his neck; his face is washed out, and his eyes are sunken hollows in his sockets. Anko stands behind him and presses her chest against his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and dropping a kiss against his freshly scrubbed cheek.

"You look like shit," Anko says, sweetly. In the mirror, Kimimaro rolls his eyes.


	10. Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few people have commented that Kimimaro is sixteen and Anko is WAY older than him in canon (in this AU, they're the same age). I've decided to address this. Sort of :)

"You have the telomeres of a sixteen year-old," Shizune said. She switched off the microscope and wheeled toward them, pulling her clipboard onto her lap. "There are only two explanations for this: one, that Kimimaro has extraordinary regenerative abilities, which makes sense given that every time he uses his ability, he essentially wounds himself from the inside. If this is the case, then that's good news for you - we know that the cursed seal is the source of his affliction.

The second explanation," Shizune said, and her mouth quirked a little, "is that Kimimaro-san is truly sixteen."

Anko's eyes widened.

"Fuck."

 

****

 

Kimimaro was reading when Anko burst through the door.

"How old are you?" she asked. And because this wasn't the first time Anko's shouted at him without properly greeting him first, Kimimaro was only slightly confused but didn't hesitate when he answered, "I do not know," followed by, "We never marked the anniversary of my birth."

"Well you're not sixteen, right?" Anko said. "Right?"

"Do not be ridiculous," Kimimaro said. He flowed to his full height, the fabric of his long shirt rustling slightly with the movement.

"Well how old do you think you are?" Anko said. "Oi. I'm talking to you."

Kimimaro ignored her.

"Please say at least eighteen," Anko said. Kimimaro's eyes narrowed.

 

*****

 

He was training in the courtyard when the whole situation took an unexpected development.

The jounin usually kept a respectful distance from him, while the chuunin were positively terrified. It vaguely reminded him of the Sound: the unspoken acknowledgement of his physical superiority. It made him feel welcome, so to speak. So there Kimimaro was, training while the chuunin around him quivered and shook, when Anko came barreling down.

"Oi!" Anko said. "Kimi-chan!"

Kimimaro nearly fell over.

"Kimi-chan?" Kimimaro said. Anko grinned.

"Yeah," Anko said. "And from now on you can call me senpai as well."

"I will do no such thing," Kimimaro said.

The other chuunin seemed torn between cowering and laughing. Kimimaro shot them a look; they cowered behind Anko.

 

*****

A few days passed, and the whole mess of the situation seemed to have resolved itself. Anko popped pieces of candy and licked her fingers, never once referring to him as that ridiculous nickname, nor bringing up the sticky situation of his true age. For that, Kimimaro was glad.

"Well of course you just age slower," Anko said. She rolled a piece of dango under her tongue.

Kimimaro was silently thankful.

 

*****

"Oh. Oh, oh, shit-"

She was close. He could feel her hands grip against his back, the muscles of her stomach and thighs tensing toward release. He hauled her up and thrust harder, burying his face into her neck.

"Oh, fuck, Kimi-chan!"

"Wha-"

But she came and he felt himself spill inside her.

 

****

 

She was sitting on the bed, laughing her ass off. Kimimaro glared.

"You cannot call me that," Kimimaro said.

"Why?" Anko said.

"We are the same age," Kimimaro said.

"You don't know that," Anko said. "If I'm robbing the cradle I might as well enjoy it." She was laughing so hard she was wheezing. Kimimaro bristled.

"Well then if I am not, then flaunting it is hardly appropriate," Kimimaro said.

"Whatever," Anko said. She sprawled back on the bed, skin flushed and damp and her breasts heaving with a post-coital blush."You're ruining my afterglow."

"Orochimaru recruited me soon after he left Konoha," Kimimaro said. "You couldn't have been more than twelve when he left."

"Who cares. I'm a fucking cougar. Who gives a shit."

"I must have been about the same age," Kimimaro said. Anko sat up.

"Seriously?" Anko said. Kimimaro frowned at her.

"It is simple mathematics," Kimimaro said. "If you were twelve when he left, and I was about that age when he found me, then it is logical to deduce that we are the same age. Or at the very least, something close to it."

"Huh." Anko leaned back, considering. "So what the hell is this telomere business Shizune keeps talking about?"

"I do not know," Kimimaro said. "Although I am fairly certain," and his mouth quirked, slightly, "I will age better than you will."

"Ass," Anko said, and she cuddled into his shoulder.


	11. Pretty

She can't stop kissing him.

Some nights, she lies on his chest and kisses the side of his neck, dropping small kisses against the line of his jaw. She kisses his mouth and his neck and the hollow over his collarbone, moving up to kiss the triangle of muscle at the corner of his jaw.

His body is fascinating to her. Anko leans on his chest and splays her fingers out over his seal, silently feeling the steady rise and fall of his breathing. His skin is pale and she can just make out the pale blue veins underneath. Idly she will undo the plaits in his hair and twist the long strands in her fingers, frowning over split ends and playing with the red clasps in her hands.

One night, she's leaning against his stomach when she kisses him, slow and deep, the sort of kiss that can go anywhere or nowhere at all. She kisses him and Kimimaro can feel her smiling against his mouth, and he pulls away gently to press a kiss at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes meet his and he sees her bite her lip.

"What is it?" Kimimaro says. Anko shifts, looking at him.

"You're really pretty, you know that?" Anko says.

"What?"

"Like, girly pretty." She flops against him, squeezing his shoulders. "Like, prettier than a girl."

She's teasing him again. She probably expects him to react like he normally does-by scowling, sighing, or pointedly ignoring her-but instead he reaches out a hand, then traces a soft line against the side of her face.

"You're prettier," Kimimaro says, and Anko's eyes widen. Surprised.

"What?" Anko says, but Kimimaro leans forward and gently kisses the shock from her mouth.


	12. The L Word

"I love you," Anko says. And then, in a smaller voice, "It's okay if you don't feel the same."

She looks frightened and her hands are pressed lightly against his chest, as if ready to shove him off at a moment's notice, and he remembers what she told him once, how Orochimaru had taken her trust and later threw her away.

He kisses her forehead, then cradles her close. "Of course I love you," he says. "Why would you say such a thing?"

"Because we've been doing this for a while now, and you've never said it," Anko says. Kimimaro frowns.

"Forgive me. I thought you already knew."

And Anko just stares at him, poised somewhere between relief and irritation, before she huffs and rolls her eyes:

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?"


	13. Nin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimimaro and Anko's relationship, from the villager's point of view

Kimimaro does not get along with the Konoha nin.

The others watch him. Whisper furtively about his past--how he had kidnapped Anko and tortured her, only to find her again in the village. Kotetsu and Izumo remembered how they found her, broken and battered and her hand mangled and clutched to her chest, and how she staggered forward, leaning against Iruka's arm and trying not to cry. "Anko-taichou! Where is the prisoner?"

"He is dead," Anko said, and her chin wobbled.

 

******

 

He wasn't dead, unfortunately. He had found her again, months after.

Izumo was suspicious. "Anko! He was Orochimaru's soldier! How can we trust him?"

Kotetsu objected. "Anko! He's creepy, we can't."

She didn't listen to them. Every day at the training grounds, they watched as Kimimaro stood apart from the others, always alone and watching them with disdainful eyes. "Do you want to sit with us?" Iruka asked one day, while the others opened their bento boxes and watched as Kimimaro pointedly sat on a log farthest away from them, Iruka smiling openly and offering him a seat. "Ne, Kimimaro-san?"

Kimimaro's eyes narrowed.

" _Iruka_ ," Kotetsu said. "Shut up!"

"Don't talk to him. He'll kill you if he doesn't like you."

"You are right," Kimimaro said, and everyone else jumped. He stood, loose robes flowing over hard muscle pale skin beneath.

"I have no reason to deal with trash. Consider yourself lucky I am not bothered enough to dispose of you."

 

*****

 

One day, Iruka finds Kimimaro sitting on a bench underneath a large tree. The sun is setting, and great streaks of shadows fall on the tall grasses around them, the sky darkening to a cobalt blue.

Iruka steps forward. Kimimaro is polishing a forehead protector, gently tracing over the leaf pattern with a cloth. He is doing it with such a studied concentration that Iruka manages to surprise him. Kimimaro looks up, narrows his eyes, and seems to wait for Iruka to apologize for the intrusion.

"I thought we might talk," Iruka says. He doesn't sit next to Kimimaro--his body language and his posture won't allow him for that--but he does stand close to him, close enough for a proper conversation, something the other nin were so far afraid to do. He tells him as much: "Everyone is afraid of you," Iruka says.

Kimimaro turns back to his forehead protector. The Konoha insignia gleams. He traces it with the pads of his fingers. "It does not matter," Kimimaro says. "I live only for Anko's sake. All my time is spent for her."

Iruka squats beside him, carefully. "Anko is your friend?"

Kimimaro looks up sharply. Glares. "Anko is important to me. Special. I will do anything and everything for Anko's sake." He turns back to the piece of metal, tracing small circles around the edge the polishing cloth, gently. Carefully. "I polish this every night, thinking of her."

"She rescued you," Iruka says. A statement. Kimimaro frowns.

"She gave my life meaning." Quietly he tucks the forehead protector back into his pocket, before rising. "I will warn you now. If you get in her way, I will take it upon myself to hurt you. Kill you if need be. I have no loyalties to this place. Only to Anko. And that is the truth."

Kimimaro's back is toward him as he walks, the loose fabric of his robes catching the wind around them. "She is not Orochimaru," Iruka says, but Kimimaro ignores him. "You don't have to be this way."

Kimimaro stops. Turns. "Do you love her, Iruka-san?"

Iruka blinks. "What?" he says, but Kimimaro turns back, walking forward.

"Then you do not know the depths to which I will go to protect her."

 

*****

 

There is a fight. Iruka pushes through the crowd, horrified, watching as Kimimaro slams Gai into a wall.

"What happened?" Iruka says. The others cheer as Gai lurches off his feet and tries to punch him, Kimimaro dodging, expertly. "Why are they fighting?"

"He insulted Anko," Kotetsu says. Kimimaro whirls. A flash of white streaming from his sleeve.

"Gai! Watch out behind you!"

The shard of bone gores him, slams through the side of Gai's ribs and making him fall to his knees. "Gai! Gai!"

"Hmph," Kimimaro says, and the bone recedes, retracting back into his arm. "Trash. You are lucky I won't kill you."

"Kimimaro!" Someone running behind them. The crowd turns. "Kimimaro, what's going on?"

It's Anko. She's running hard and breathless, skidding to a stop. "Gai!" Anko says. She pushes past Kimimaro and falls to her knees, pulling him up. "What the hell did you do to Gai?"

"He insulted you," Kimimaro says. Anko throws him an angry look.

"You could have killed him!" Anko says. Gai starts to protest but Anko pushes Kimimaro against the ribs, angry. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Anko." Kimimaro looks lost as the crowd begins to disperse, Anko pulling Gai up and hoisting his arm around her shoulder. "Anko."

"Don't talk to me," Anko says, and as she walks past Iruka, he hears her mutter, "Worthless," and Iruka looks back at Kimimaro, who stands defeated, back hunched and his robes falling over his arms.

It begins to rain. Quietly the crowd disperses, and there is no one standing there, only Kimimaro, shadows falling over his face, the sky an asphalt gray, and the tortured, awful look playing at the corners of his eyes.


	14. Light

Kimimaro could be called many things, but he was not a man unused to discipline; years spent with the nin of the Sound had made him well-acquainted with it, the sharp slap of a hand or cold dark eyes staring at him in rebuke. Orochimaru's chosen. He rose through the ranks effortlessly, above the trash and the scum surrounding him.

Now, the knife-edge of Kimimaro's devotion was aimed at Anko, with seemingly disastrous results.

"You're a fucking moron, you know that?" Anko said, when she found him, standing guiltily in the shadows. "Leaving me like that! I was worried sick!"

Kimimaro sat front of her, quietly letting her wipe the blood from his face. She was sitting close and her mouth was half open in concentration, carefully tracing the ragged outline of a particularly vicious wound. "I was looking everywhere for you," Anko said, and she pressed her hand harder into the side of Kimimaro's temple, making him wince. "Stupid," Anko said again, and she shoved the cloth into the basin. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I only wished to protect you." He tried to focus on the small pains on the cuts of his skin, forcefully ignoring how her knees touched the side of his leg or how her face was just so close to his.

"You are the light that is worth protecting. I would die for you," Kimimaro said, and Anko pulled back, slightly.

"Don't say that," Anko said, finally, and she dipped the cloth back into the water. "I'm not your goddamn Orochimaru, okay? No one has to die for anyone, anymore."

"But it is true," Kimimaro said. His eyes were dull. Unfocused. Pieces of hair fell over his face. "I would die for you, Anko. Willingly. If you let me."

She slapped the cloth hard against the table. "Stop it," Anko said. "Seriously just stop it. Okay? You don't owe me anything--"

"--I owe you everything," Kimimaro said. "Everything. More than my life."

Anko's chest was tight. "Kimimaro. I'm not your savior. You don't have to be like this," she said, and Kimimaro closed his eyes.

"You will not have me," Kimimaro said. His voice was low. Hurt. "I am not of use to you."

"No!" Anko said, horrified. "That's not what I meant--" and she saw his eyes, unfocused, looking down. "Kimimaro. I love you. I want to be with you. And just because we have a fight doesn't mean I want you to leave."

He looks up at her, shocked. His surprise hurts her - of course he'd expect to be thrown out, that's what everyone else has done to him."You said I was worthless," he said, softly. And inwardly Anko kicked herself.

She did say that. She was pissed off and irritated and the words "worthless idiot" tumbled out of her mouth before she could think about it. But she didn't mean it. Certainly not the way Kimimaro heard it. "I didn't mean it," Anko said. "Kimimaro...I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

His eyes were dark. Uncertain. "I love you," she said, again. "But I don't want you beating up my friends within an inch of their life! I mean, what did Gai say to you, anyway?" and Kimimaro couldn't look at her.

"He said--" and Kimimaro hesitated. "He said you looked like the type of person to be sexually aggressive."

"Huh?"

"A tigress in the sack." Kimimaro's face burned.

"That's all?" Anko said.

"He was insulting your honor!" Kimimaro said, and Anko bit down a laugh. "What is it?" Kimimaro said, and Anko shook her head.

"I've never had anyone 'defend my honor' before," Anko said. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," Anko said. She felt him grip her, hard.

"I'm sorry I attacked."

"Hm." She kissed the side of his cheek thoughtfully before resting her head against his shoulder. "You know what the best part of a fight is?" she asked.

"What is that?"

"Make up sex," Anko said, and she grinned wickedly, fondly brushing a strand of hair behind his ear.


	15. Unranked

She's gone for two nights and three days proctoring the chuunin exams; when she finally comes back, she doesn't greet him: instead she pushes past him, dropping her duffel bag on the ground and flopping onto the nearest couch.

"I'm so tired," Anko says. "A bunch of twelve year-olds got themselves stuck in the middle of a ravine. Kotetsu said he'd handle it, but because he sucks, nothing got done."

"That sounds difficult," Kimimaro says. He sits beside her, saying nothing as she her kicks off her boots and props her feet on his lap. "And how did you go about rescuing them?"

"Them? They're goddamn genin. I let them figure it out."

Kimimaro says nothing. Wordlessly he begins rubbing the sole of Anko's left foot, before moving to massage the arch of her foot with his thumbs.

"So when are you going to take it?" Anko says.

"Take what?" Kimimaro says. He's concentrating on the knot in the middle of her sole.

"The chuunin exams. You're still unranked."

"There is no point to that," Kimimaro says. "We both know I should rank as jounin."

"Yeah, in taijutsu, maybe. But we both know you're pretty useless with anything else."

Kimimaro frowns. "Just because the rest of your skillset is underdeveloped does not mean it is the same for me," Kimimaro says. Anko grins.

"I could put you on a team with a couple twelve year-olds. How does that sound?"

Kimimaro frowns.

"I'm just kidding," Anko says. But really she is not.

 

*****

 

"Where are you taking me?" Kimimaro says. He follows Anko down the hallway, frowning.

"You'll see," Anko says. She pushes open the examining room doors and motions for Kimimaro to step inside.

"It's a test," Anko says. She waves the packet of papers in front of him. "Just to see how you do. By the way, the examiner has the answer sheet, so if they catch you cheating, consider yourself a fucking genin the rest of your life."

Kimimaro cocks his head. Anko waves.

"Good luck," Anko says, and she shuts the door.

Later, she sits outside the testing room with Iruka, watching Kimimaro through the one-way mirror.

"So the whole point of this test is to see if he cheats?" Iruka says.

"No, stupid, it's to see how well he gathers intelligence. Jesus, has it been that long since you've taken the exam?" Anko says.

"I just passed on my own merit," Iruka says. They watch behind the one-way mirror as Kimimaro gamely writes in the test booklet.

The clock buzzes, and the examiner takes the test packet away from him. Kimimaro stands, nonplussed.

"Well?" Anko says. Kimimaro shakes his head.

"It was fine," Kimimaro says. "Though I do not see how knowing applied physics has anything to do with being a shinobi."

"So you think you did bad, huh?" Anko says. For some reason she just wants to wipe that superior-ass look from his face, but Kimimaro gives her an elegant little shrug.

"Taichou." Someone knocks on the door. "Mitarashi Taichou. Can I see you a minute?"

"I'll be back," Anko says. Kimimaro just looks bored.

 

*****

 

"The hell did you learn how to do math like that?"

Anko sits on the bed as Kimimaro washes his face, staring at him. Kimimaro sets down the towel and smiles.

"I did not," Kimimaro says. "I estimated."

"What?"

"They were projectile-based problems," Kimimaro says, and he cracks his wrist, a small shard of bone popping up with a sickening slurp. "Surely you know I have enough combat experience to adequately guess." And he tosses the bone fragment toward her.

"Gross," Anko says. Kimimaro rolls his eyes.


	16. Hospital

One day, he collapses, Anko rushing up and hauling him up in her arms.

Tsunade's face is grave when Anko returns to the hospital. Glancing behind her, Kimimaro is intubated and connected to a ventilator, and the vitals on the monitor are growing weak. Tsunade touches Anko by the arm and leads her down the hall.

"He doesn't have long," Tsunade says. "Right now, we're keeping him alive with machines. We can leave him on a ventilator like this, but I can tell you it's unlikely he'll wake up."

Anko's face is drawn as she sits on the rickety plastic chair. She grips her knees, staring at her hands. "What should I do?" Anko says. Tsunade sits down next to her, gently touching her shoulder.

"You have two choices," Tsunade says, gently. "We can leave him on machines, let them keep breathing for him. Or we can make him comfortable and let him die peacefully. The decision is up to you."

 

*****

 

Anko is at the bedside when they extubate him, pulling the tube from his throat and disconnecting him from the monitor. A medic nin touches her arm, sympathetically. "It won't be long," he murmurs. Shizune and Tsunade watch with grave eyes as Anko sinks beside him and tries not to cry.

"Visiting hours are over. You may return in the morning at 7 a.m."

"You can stay," Shizune says. She smiles, wanly. "It's a private room. The other medic nin won't mind."

"Thank you," Anko says. Dully she holds Kimimaro's hand.

Shizune leaves. Anko glances down at Kimimaro, who looks as if he's just asleep. Slowly, she lowers the bedrails to Kimimaro's bed and climbs beside him, leaning her head against his chest. "You can go, you know," Anko says. She combs through Kimimaro's hair, which is tangled from lying in the hospital bed for so long. "I know you're keeping alive just for me, but I want you to know I'll be okay."

Anko's face wrenches. She buries her face into his neck. "I'm going to miss you, though," Anko says, and she starts to cry.

 

*****

 

Hours pass, and Anko falls into a fitful sleep. She doesn't stir at first when he touches her hand; it's only when he strokes her hair that she wakes up.

"Anko."

Her eyes blink open, and blearily she turns and sees Kimimaro watching her quietly, his hand on her waist.

 

*****

 

Tsunade and Shizune watch through the observatory window as Anko excitedly sits next to Kimimaro, at turns hugging him and pushing all sorts of inappropriate food at his face. "Amazing," Shizune says. She glances up at Tsunade, awestruck. "He shouldn't have lasted the night."

Tsunade's face is dark when she knocks on the door.

Anko looks up. "Tsunade-sama."

"Anko. Go home," Tsunade says. Anko glances back at Kimimaro, agonized.

Tsunade makes an irritated noise, "He's nowhere near dying, go home. You'll get in the way of the staff," and Anko nods and grips his hand one last time, before leaving the room.

Tsunade waits until Anko is gone before she speaks to him. "You should be dead," Tsunade says. "I've never seen anything like this. It's as if you're keeping yourself alive through sheer willpower alone."

Kimimaro nods, quietly. "It would not be the first time," Kimimaro says. Tsunade sits next to him.

"When you first were brought here, you were fatally depleted of chakra. Somehow it's returned, though only slightly. We've sealed that mark of yours to ensure your chakra doesn't fade more than it already has," Tsunade says.

Kimimaro touches the cursed mark at his chest. He would not be able to join with Orochimaru-sama, but that did not matter, now.

"There is also the matter of your ability," Tsunade says, quietly. "To manipulate bone eats up massive amounts of chakra, which you cannot afford in your condition. You mustn't use your ability; any other strain to the body and you may not last. Do you understand?"

Kimimaro nods. "Yes," he says. Tsunade frowns, and stands.

"Rest well," Tsunade says, and she leaves. Behind her, Shizune stands uncertainly, then steps forward.

"Kimimaro-san?"

"Yes?"

Shizune gingerly steps next to him, turning a clipboard in her hands. "You didn't want to leave her, did you?" she asks. Kimimaro nods, slowly.

"If I died, no one would protect her," Kimimaro says. Shizune frowns.

"You can't use your ability. Tsunade-sama said--"

"That is not what I am referring to," Kimimaro says. Shizune waits a moment, then nods.

"I understand," Shizune says. She flips the clipboard shut. "Get some rest. I'm sure Anko will be here in the morning."


	17. Fight

"Ne, Kimimaro?"

"Hmm?"

"If Orochimaru wanted you back...would you go to him?"

He couldn't see Anko's face. There were shadows over her eyes.

"Why are you asking me this?"

Anko looked away.

"You know I would not," Kimimaro said. "I am grateful for all that he has done for me, grateful for teaching me and taking me under his wing. But Orochimaru-sama wanted only my body. Even if I could be his vessel I would not return to him."

"Then why won't you get rid of it?" Anko said. She was talking about Kimimaro's seal. "Tsunade-sama said that mark is what's killing you and you won't let them take it out. And the only thing I can think of is that you're waiting for Orochimaru again, and fuck you if that's the case, because I'm not going to sit here and wait for you to die!"

She was shouting and her hands were clenched, but Kimimaro could see it, the worry and hurt edging the corners of her eyes.

"It is to protect you," Kimimaro said. "There may be a time where I am incapacitated and you are in danger. That seal, dangerous as it is, would be the only thing that would let me continue to fight. So long as I do not use it, my disease will not progress. But I would not discard it lightly. It has nothing to do with Orochimaru-sama. It is only a matter of practicality."

Anko didn't move. Kimimaro sat gingerly beside her, looking at his hands.

"You wish for me to remove it?" Kimimaro said. Anko nodded. He glanced up at her.

"All right," Kimimaro said. He felt Anko squeeze his hand.

*****

 

It took nearly seven hours of intense treatment before Tsunade and Shizune were able to seal off the mark. "It is a voluntary seal, just as you requested," Tsunade said. "But understand if you use this, it could kill you. So only use it as a last resort."

"I understand," Kimimaro said. He touched his chest. The mark, which used to stand prominently on his skin, was nothing but a faded scar.


	18. Pregnant

Anko is throwing up again.

"You are ill!" Kimimaro says. Anko waves her hand and retches into the toilet. "You need to see the medics," Kimimaro says.

"I'm fine," Anko says. She flushes the toilet, glaring. "Stop following me into the bathroom. It's creepy."

Kimimaro watches her, doubtfully. "Have you bled?" Kimimaro says.

"What?"

"Bled," Kimimaro says. "What women do during that time."

"I'm not pregnant," Anko says. She stares at him. "I'm not!"

"Hm," Kimimaro says. "But I would be very happy if you were."

"Oi! If you fucked around with my contraceptives, I swear to god-"

"I did not touch them," Kimimaro says. Anko's face turns green.

"Fuck!" Anko says, and starts throwing up again.

 

*****

 

It takes three straight days of vomiting before Anko finally drags her sorry ass to the doctor.

Blood and urine tests aside, Anko figures she probably has a stomach bug. She waits as Shizune reviews the results of her tests, the paper gown feeling scratchy and irritating against her skin.

"Well," Shizune says. She snaps shut her clipboard. "You're pregnant."

Anko only stares.

 

*****

 

When she tells Kimimaro, he has this stupid look on his face, like he's trying not to smile or look too giddy or happy or something, but it pisses her off and she slaps him against the arm.

"This is your fault," Anko says.

"What?" He blinks. Anko glares.

"We fucking used condoms, we fucking used pills, I fucking had a chakra cap over my goddamn cervix, and what the fuck, why are you laughing, I could fucking kill you, you selfish baby-making ass."

"You told me you hated condoms; you were noncompliant with the pills, and even though that chakra cap only works fifty percent of the time, you told me you were so regular you knew when you were ovulating like clockwork," Kimimaro says. He smiles. "I only went along with it because I'd like to see you with child."

"I hate you," Anko says. Kimimaro smiles.


	19. A Conversation

"People are born for a reason. That is what I believe. And though I had thought my reason was to serve Orochimaru-sama, I now know it was to find you and protect you, and restore the Kaguya in my own way."

Kimimaro's hand slides across Anko's belly, six month's swollen. He smiles with his eyes.

"I will teach our child to fight for a more noble purpose - not of the needless violence that plagued my clan. I believe my suffering was that so I would know when I would be truly needed. Loved. Orochimaru-sama wanted only my body, now I know the joy of someone who loves me for my soul."

****

"I hate to break it to you, but I pretty much want you for your body, too."


	20. Name

Kimimaro is surprisingly good with babies.

"She likes you!" Anko says. "She likes you better than me."

"That is not true," Kimimaro says. Anko takes the baby from him; the baby starts to cry.

As for Kimimaro, it is as if the baby transforms him. He had always been gloomy, taciturn, pretty much anti-social and humorless - everything against Anko's normal type, she only liked him initially because she felt sorry for him - but now there's always a small smile on his face. Even when the baby is screaming and kicking up a fuss and they run out of diapers and they can't sleep, Kimimaro isn't phased. Anko watches, bleary-eyed and exhausted, as Kimimaro hoists the baby on his shoulder and rocks her until she stops crying; watches how he strips her diaper and powders her as if doing so is the most elegant and important thing in the world.

"She is so soft," Kimimaro says. Anko tries not to smile when Kimimaro strokes the baby's palm with his index finger, then picks her up to kiss her on the temple.

"Ne," Anko says. "What are we going to call her?"

"I thought we already picked a name," Kimimaro says. He sets Sayaka in her crib, gently.

"No," Anko says. "I mean, what are we going to call her? Mitarashi Sayaka, or Kaguya Sayaka?"

Kimimaro's face darkens. "I was never a Kaguya," Kimimaro says. "I was never a part of their clan."

"You still wear those markings," Anko says. Kimimaro doesn't look at her. Gently she slides against him, leaning against his back. "You two can become the new Kaguya clan," Anko says. Kimimaro looks up.

"Anko?"

"I think you should," Anko says. She rests her cheek against his shoulder. "It's lonely, being the last," Anko says. "I don't want that for you. And I don't want our daughter not knowing where her papa came from."

Kimimaro blinks. There is a warmth behind his eyes, and Anko seems to catch it, because she kisses his cheek and hugs him, hard.

Later, she makes fun of him for being such a goddamn girl.


	21. Papa

"She's starting to look like you," Anko said. Kimimaro watched in awe as their daughter toddled precariously across the carpet, walking as if on stilts before falling onto Anko's lap.

"Indeed." Kimimaro extended his hand, letting his daughter grip his finger in her tiny hands.

He never thought he could be capable of loving anyone like this. Never thought how easily his heart would leap in his throat when his daughter cried or stubbed her little foot against the leg of a table. He never knew fear until the day he saw his daughter tumble off a rocking chair she had climbed behind her mother's back, never knew what it was like to have someone small and warm squirming up against his chest.

One day, there was an explosion. Enemy nin broke into the village and Kimimaro fought back, defending his family with all the strength he had.

When it was over, when he slumped and staggered forward, the bones in his body bloody and receding, he looked at his daughter and reached out his hand.

But his daughter looked at him and screamed.

 

*****

 

"A monster!" his daughter said. "Mommy I saw a monster!"

She wouldn't stop crying for days.

 

*****

 

"She's only four," Anko said. Kimimaro watched silently as Anko tucked their child into bed, speaking with a soft, soothing voice, before smoothing over the covers with her palm. "She doesn't understand. She probably didn't know it was you."

Tentatively, Kimimaro walked into the room. "Sayaka?"

The little girl stared at him. Her hands clenched the blanket. Anko touched his arm.

"Sayaka, honey. Say goodnight to your papa."

The little girl shook her head. She stared at him, terrified.

Kimimaro stepped forward. She screamed.

"Sayaka! It's okay," Anko said. She sat on the bed, pulling her up into her lap. She looked up at Kimimaro, worried. "It's just papa. Shh."

She was crying. Kimimaro stood and softly closed the door.


	22. The Silent Word

The canyon of the founders faces west, catching the light as the sun sets and casting shadows along the village at its periphery. Sometimes, Sayaka and her mother will walk along the forest's edge, tracking a deer or a rabbit or some other small animal, so that her earliest memories are of the green foliage or how the sunlight dapples the ground.

"This is how you track," her mama says, and Sayaka watches, wide-eyed and breathless, as her mama circles the rabbit and corners it, reaching one hand out to stroke its fur.

 

*****

 

"Sayaka, how was your day?" Her mama is smiling. She spoons out rice and meat and Sayaka pushes around her vegetables, chewing slowly.

"Iruka-sensei taught us hand signs," Sayaka says. She chews. "Tomorrow we'll make clones."

"Good," her mama says, and she smiles wide. "When your papa comes home, you'll have to show him."

"Papa?"

Her mama smiles. "He's been gone a long time, but he'll be glad to see us."

"Oh."

Sayaka stares at her bowl. Steam rises from the rice. She plays with her chopsticks, nervously.

Her mama's smile thins. "Sayaka? Won't you be glad to see your papa?"

The meat is cut up in big chunks. The vegetables are soggy. "Sayaka?"

"Mm," Sayaka says, and she shovels another bite of food in her mouth.

 

*****

 

Her papa comes home later that night.

It's dark in the house, but her mama's lit a candle in the living room when her papa finally comes home. Shadows and orange light bounce off the tatami mats and the rice paper screen, and Sayaka crouches in the darkness, holding her breath and watching as her papa slowly enters the room.

He's covered in shadows; candlelight backlights his face but otherwise everything is dark. He had been gone for almost a month.

"Sayaka," her papa says, and Sayaka jumps. He turns, green eyes staring straight at her. "Will you not say hello?"

"H-hello. Papa," Sayaka says. It's all she can manage. He straightens and reaches a hand. Sayaka winces. His mouth presses into a thin line.

 

*****

 

She never sees her papa. What she does see of him is terrifying: long white hair and the face of a ghost, the other shinobi men whispering furtively and giving him a wide berth. She is young, but even she understands that her papa is terrifying to them. He gives no warmth to her or her mama, who sits and waits for him as he goes out on his missions.

"Your papa is just quiet," her mama says. She plaits Sayaka's hair, strong hands holding the brush. "He doesn't mean to be. He seems scary but he's really just shy."

"Mama," Sayaka says, because her mama's using that same tone she uses when she's telling silly tales. Her papa is not someone shy.

"You hurt his feelings, you know," her mama says. She feels her mama tugging her hair into braids, working deftly like she would with her snakes or her potions. "Your papa loves you. He's just not very good at showing it."

"Papa doesn't like me," Sayaka says. Her mama stops.

"What?" her mama says. "Sayaka, that's not true."

"It is," Sayaka says. "He's never home, and when he's here, he stays in his room."

Her mama says nothing. She feels her finish the braid, tying the knot and rising.

"Sayaka," her mama says. "Sometimes when you've been lonely for a long time, it's hard to reach out to others. Even if they're your flesh and blood. I'll talk to him when he gets home. I promise."

"Mama," Sayaka says, but her mother smiles.

"Good girl," her mama says, and she ruffles her hair.

 

*****

 

Dinner again, except this time her papa is at the head of the table. "What did you learn today, Sayaka?" her mama asks, and Sayaka glances at her papa, who is watching her, silently.

"Clones," Sayaka says. She watches her mama glance at her papa, as if to silently prod him. "They also taught us hand seals."

"Have you trained?" her papa says. Sayaka sees her mama throw him a sharp glance, but he stares straight at her, anyway. "Have you worked on your exercises, like I've shown you?"

"No," Sayaka says. Her voice comes out very small.

"Why?" her papa says. Sayaka jumps.

"Because...because we're learning hand seals, and I need to learn the Kage Bunshin, and-"

Her father gives her a withering stare.

There is a long silence. Sayaka pushes the food around her plate. Her mama huffs and rolls her eyes.

"Anata, you're scaring her. Why don't you say something?"

"There is nothing to say," her papa says. "That fool of a teacher is teaching her parlor tricks, and you wish for me to make polite conversation?"

Sayaka stares at her hands.

"Mama taught me how to track," Sayaka says. Her papa says nothing. Her mama is staring daggers at him. Sayaka is scared.

"Finish your dinner," her mama says. Sayaka does, eating quickly and escaping to her room.

 

*****

 

That night, she hears them fighting. The sounds are muffled but she can just make out the words.

"You're too hard on her," her mama is saying.

Sayaka focuses on the noises, the sound of the crickets and the other night noises outside her room. "It hasn't happened," her mama was saying. "Whatever happened to you won't happen to her. She's fine. She's just a normal, happy kid."

"Normal," her papa says. Through the walls, Sayaka can almost picture the disgust on his face. "I too was normal before it manifested itself. She needs to learn to be in control. Otherwise-"

"Otherwise what? She'll gore her classmates to death? Are you serious?"

"She has to learn," her papa says. She hears her mama pacing. "Even if she hates me she has to learn."

Sayaka squeezes her eyes.

 

*****

 

The kids in her class say her papa is evil. "He grows horns like the devil, that's what my daddy said!"

"He's from a cursed clan. That's why he's got those marks-it's from his enemies' blood."

The whispers. Rumors. Sayaka is used to them all, but one day she finds the kids huddled together, looking at Sayaka with hushed fear.

"I heard he raped your mama," one kid says. Sayaka's eyes widen.

"Who said that?" her mama says, and for the first time Sayaka sees her mama rage. "Where the hell is Iruka? I need to talk to him-"

"Mama, don't," Sayaka says, but her mother brushes her off, storming into the classroom and throwing open the door.

Sayaka sits miserably in the hallway, hands over her ears as her mother proceeds to threaten her teacher's livelihood, before storming out and grabbing Sayaka by the arm.

"C'mon," her mama says, and she pulls her back outside.

 

*****

 

"Is it true?" Sayaka asks.

"Is what true?" Her mama is tracking. There is a deer just ahead of them. Sayaka frowns.

"That papa kidnapped you."

Her mama lets out a breath-something between exasperation and fatigue. She lowers her stance, letting the deer leap into the brush as she does. "Your papa was a prisoner before," her mama says, finally. "His group kidnapped one of our genin. I used him to track their camp."

"So he didn't kidnap you?"

"No," her mama says. Sayaka sags with relief. Her mama pulls out her pack, slowly unwrapping a package of crackers. "This village is not very tolerant to outsiders," her mama says. "Even heroes who save them, they don't like anyone who's different. And your papa is very different."

She hands Sayaka a cracker, chewing thoughtfully.

"Am I going to be like him?" Sayaka asks, finally. "Like papa?" Her mama looks at her for a long moment, then ruffles her hair.

"If you are, then you'll be very lucky," her mama says. She pulls Sayaka into her lap, pressing a kiss to her hair. "Your papa is very strong. He has a special ability no one else has. He's just afraid for you, is all."

"Will I have it, too?"

"I don't know," her mama says.

The sun sets. They sit for a moment, before standing and heading back to the house.


	23. Bloodline

"Mama!" Their daughter screams. They rush into the bedroom.

"Sayaka!"

"Mama!" Bones explode out from her shoulders, tearing her skin and spraying blood across the wall.

"Sayaka!" Anko throws herself on her, but a shard of bone slashes against her arm. Kimimaro yanks her back, grabbing their daughter and shielding her with his body. Bones jut out like spines but Kimimaro keeps holding her, face screwed tight.

Anko's eyes widen. The bones calm down, but she can see the gashes on Kimimaro's skin; only small plates of bone had kept those shards from piercing him.

Their daughter cries. Blood drips down the side of Kimimaro's arm.

 

*****

 

Sayaka is asleep. It took nearly all night for Anko to heal the gashes in their daughter's back, and even then there were still scars, pale pink and translucent; but every so often chakra would flare beneath her skin and their daughter would be screaming again, shards of bone erupting as her skin split like an overripe peach.

"I was about her age when I manifested," Kimimaro says. He sits next to Anko, gingerly. "I am sorry," Kimimaro says. "This is all my fault."

"Why is she still bleeding?" Anko asks. She looks up at Kimimaro, agonized. "How come you never bleed like that?"

"I use my chakra to seal my skin," Kimimaro says. "She does not yet have that control."

Anko blinks hard. She touches her daughter's cheek, gently.

"Does it always hurt?" Anko asks. There are tears in her eyes and tears in her throat. Kimimaro can't look at her.

"Yes," Kimimaro says. Anko's face wrenches. She looks down at their daughter and tries not to cry.

Their daughter. Eight years old with pale green eyes and dark hair that fell in choppy spikes like her mother's. Anko watches as Kimimaro kneels and presses the red marks of the maro-mayu of his clan onto their daughter's forehead, then gently swipes the red marks under her eyes.

"They haven't even taught them chakra control yet," Anko says. "Those are genin techniques. She doesn't even know how to hold a sword." She looks up at Kimimaro, who is standing beside her, quiet. "How was it when you manifested?" Anko asks. Kimimaro shakes his head.

"It was painful," Kimimaro says. "I did not understand what was happening to me. Only that I was a weapon and that I was too dangerous to be with the rest of the village. They locked me up the next day."

"I'm sorry," Anko says. She rests her chin against Kimimaro's shoulder. "I just don't want her to hurt, you know?"

Kimimaro nods.

"I know."


	24. Train

They're fighting again: Sayaka can hear them from behind the wall.

"What do you mean?" Her mama says.

Sayaka watches, hidden behind the doorway, as her mama rails against her papa, hands tightening into fists and voice rising to a barely controlled pitch. "What do you mean, I can't hug my own daughter?"

"She might gore you to death," her papa says. His voice is low, quiet. "Anko. As much as it pains me to say this, our daughter is dangerous. She should not be with the others. She is a danger to the other children as well."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Her mama asks. "Put her in a cage?" Her mama's face wrenches. She looks like she's going to cry.

Sayaka's eyes widen. With one swift movement, her papa pulls her mama into his arms, hugging her tighter than she's ever seen. She's never seen her papa hug her mama. Never. But now he's hugging her and kissing the sides of her face, and it scares her a little, because her papa was a stranger and her mama shouldn't care.

Sayaka pulls her knees to her chin, hugging herself. Weeks had passed since the last attack, and Sayaka is sure the bone spell won't happen again. Sure, except when her shoulder inexplicably ripped out of its socket during homeroom: her classmates had screamed and she nearly impaled her teacher in the process. Sayaka squeezes her eyes. She is a danger to the other children as well.

The door opens. Sayaka looks up. Her papa is staring down at her, frowning.

"Come," her papa says.

Sayaka stands and follows him outside.

 

*****

 

It's nighttime already, but strangely the sky is more of a burnt orange than black, the ghost light of the signal flares wafting in the distance. Her father sits beside her on the porch and wordlessly takes out a knife. Sayaka watches as her father holds up his hand and cuts deeply into his skin.

Sayaka startles. "Watch," her papa says, and Sayaka watches how the skin around the gash begins to heal.

"There is a reason why our bloodline limit is so rare," her papa says. "Muscle and soft tissue are lacerated with each technique, and there is no way to avoid the arteries and veins coursing throughout our bodies. Most bleed to death when they first manifest. But I will teach you how to overcome that," her papa says. The cut seals. He holds up his hand, showing her. "I will teach you how to gain control."

Sayaka's eyes burn. Around her, crickets are chirping, and glowing motes of fireflies pulse gently against the nighttime sky.

"You are afraid of me," her papa says. Sayaka looks up.

Her papa. His face, long and gaunt, pale hair hanging in loose strands around his throat, the blood-red maro-mayu rimming his eyes.

Sayaka stares at her hands. The nails on her thumbs are chewed down to the quick; scuff marks line her knuckles. "It is my fault," her papa says. The wind move and he squints out into the horizon, at the dark shape of the forest and the line of trees. "After the war you had already grown. I did not know how to endear myself to you. I am sorry. I have not been much of a father to you."

"S'okay," Sayaka says. Her papa presses a hand against her head, heavy and almost affectionate. Sayaka's eyes widen.

Her papa in't smiling, but his eyes almost do. And for once she doesn't feel afraid.

"Come," her papa says, and he stands. "Your mother is waiting."

And Sayaka nods, brushing the back of her pants and following her papa into the house.


	25. Iruka

When the door opens, Iruka is surprised to see not another teacher, but Kimimaro, standing at the foot of his classroom.

It's the first time in years that Iruka's ever really talked to him. Ever since that disastrous day at the training grounds, Iruka gave up on the idea of friendship or at the very least, a less-than-hostile working relationship. Kimimaro kept everyone at more than an arm's length, a silent, hulking thing following Anko's every move. Now he's here, sitting in Iruka's classroom, body crouched among the brightly colored crayon drawings and cheerful alphabet letters strung up around the room: it's almost incongruent and actually rather funny, but Iruka doesn't dare laugh at him. He's seen enough of what Kimimaro could do to try.

"You want me to what?" Iruka says. Kimimaro watches him with that same disaffected look, as if Iruka were some sort of insect Kimimaro was only just moments away from crushing with his boot. "You want me to take her out of the classroom?"

"That is correct," Kimimaro says. He leans back, arms crossed. Glaring. "Sayaka is a danger to not only herself, but the other children. That you keep her here, against my wishes and against everyone else's better judgement, only puts you and the others in danger."

"Wait, wait, wait, you mean to tell me you _want_ me to segregate her?" Iruka stares. "I won't. I won't let that little girl be treated any differently, least of all by her father."

"Iruka?" someone says, and they look up. Anko is standing at the door.

Iruka nods and Anko steps inside, and he sees Sayaka crouching by Anko's hip, frightened. "Honey, just stay back a little while we talk, okay?"

"Yes, mom." Anko smiles and Sayaka shrinks back a little, hugging her arms.

"You can't agree with this?" Iruka says as Anko sits next to Kimimaro, pressing a hand over one tight fist and giving it a gentle squeeze. "She's a little girl. Sure there will be hiccups along the way, but we can handle it."

"This isn't like Naruto," Anko says, quietly. "And honestly I hate that we're taking her away from her classmates, but Iruka, she could bleed to death! If Kimimaro wasn't there the last time, she very well could have!"

"I see," Iruka says, and Anko pulls out a scroll from her satchel, setting it on the desk.

"Tsunade already granted her a leave of absence. We just hope that you will understand."

Iruka frowns. All his life he had seen the effects of children segregated because they were different. He couldn't stand the thought of children feeling lonely or hurt or confused. He had seen enough with Naruto, whom the village openly feared and hated, and who clung to Iruka for the smallest bit of comfort. Now Naruto was grown but he could see the same effects on Anko's little girl, already suffering the stigma of her father. He didn't want that for her. For any of his students.

"Then let me tutor her," Iruka says. "I can give her private lessons. I just don't think it's right to take her away from her friends."

"I don't think it's right either, but we don't have a choice," Anko says, and Kimimaro nods, not looking at her. Iruka can read well enough between the lines to know that Kimimaro probably thinks this is his fault.

"Iruka-sensei." Sayaka is crying. She pushes past Anko and Kimimaro, running toward Iruka's leg. "Iruka-sensei! I don't want to go!"

" _Sayaka_!" Kimimaro's tone is sharp and Anko is horrified, but Iruka stoops down and hugs her, holding her, tight.

"Don't be scared, Sayaka-chan," Iruka says, and Sayaka burrows her head into his chest. Iruka is well-aware that at any moment, she could erupt into bones and kill him at any moment, but he doesn't care. "I'll visit you every day. I promise!"

And Sayaka pulls away and nods at him, smiling and wiping her eyes.

 

*****

 

Naruto is talking to him. Iruka listens, smiling, proud as any papa could be as Naruto extols his achievements, talking with wild arms and laughing over bowls of Ramen. Behind them, one of Naruto's friends waves and Naruto jumps up, excited, and Iruka only smiles and waves at them, "Go on, it's okay, I'll finish up," and Naruto jumps off the stool, running to join the rest of his friends.

Sayaka has an advantage: she has parents who love her and care for her, and Iruka will be there to help, too, will see to it that she grows and smiles and never stops making friends. Iruka stops and watches Naruto running, caught in a laugh, then shakes his head and pushes back a smile.


End file.
